Pictures from along the way

Oriental, NC
N 35 01.491 W 076 41.70

We're back at one of our favorite places, the public docks at Oriental. You may be able to see us on the web cam. We are the rightmost of two sailboats.

Above: Flowers in St. Mary's GA

Above: A warning sign in Beaufort, SC. It seems inappropriate to warn the cars, but not the boats.

Above: After three years, Dick finally figured out the most comfortable way to do the ICW. He rigged a sling to suspend a folding chair in the air in the stern above the tiller. From this perch he has a good view over the dodger to see where we're going and he can rest his feet on the tiller while steering. The only thing missing now is a rear view mirror. Oh life is good.

Above, you see the source of our great amusement yesterday when entering Beaufort Inlet. It looks like a warship but it isn't. According to the Coast Guard special broadcast, she is the tug McCormack and she is aground. Libby thought it was very uplifting to see that even big vessels, and warship-like vessels can run aground too.

According to my charts, there is no place near by that site with less than 51 feet of water at low tide. So how did she go aground? My theory is that the tug is not aground, but her cargo is. If you peer closely at the picture, you can see something behind her just barely protruding above the water. It could be a part of an oil platform that she was towing to see that ran aground. A worse possibility is that it is the bow of a barge that sunk while being towed. That would be a big mess to straighten out.

p.s. Last night, as we anchored in Adams Creek, across the river from Oriental, Libby looked back in the ships log. She said, "We anchored in this same place exactly one year ago to the day. Oh my. We are in a rut. Such a nice rut to be in.